Letting Him In

Chapter-12

"And then I can tell myself
What the hell I'm supposed to do
And then I can tell myself
Not to ride along with you"

-Lord Huron, The Night We Met

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Elijah

Leaving the locker rooms, Elijah felt both anxious and thrilled. He was excited to finally get to be part of the next race, but he was nervous about messing it up. Looking at the clock at the end of the wall, he groaned.

Psychology had started ten minutes ago, which meant Elijah was ten minutes late to class. Rushing through the hallway, he made his way to the classroom, hurrying inside. As soon as he opened the door, Mr. Elling turned toward him, raising his eyebrows in question.

"Sorry; Coach called us for a team meet before the upcoming race. It took longer than I anticipated," he explained.

Nodding, Mr. Elling motioned for him to take his seat, and Elijah did so gladly.

"You're swimming this time?" Kaeden asked as soon as Elijah had settled down, to which he nodded.

"Elliot can't come in for this one, so Coach asked me to take over," he said, trying not to sound as excited as he actually felt. "Anyway, what are we supposed to do?"

"Mr. Elling wants us to group up with some of our friends, and question them on any general theme. Then we have to analyze their character based on that and submit it by this Friday; at least that's what I think he said," Allen said, mumbling the last part.

Elijah nodded, and was about to slump further into his seat, when she continued. "Well, there is no way that I am working with either of your teammates; they always smell of sweat or chlorine, and I refuse to sit next to them and interview them," she stated, wrinkling her nose.

"Hey!" protested Kaeden, but Elijah just chuckled.

"She has a point, mate."

"And I'm guessing neither of you would want to work with any of the girls from my art class?" When they immediately shook their heads, Allen sighed, "I guess that leaves Nate and Dean, huh? And since there's three of us, we'll have to convince Christian too."

"Sure; I mean, the girls are probably hot, but I don't want to interview them," Kaeden said. Elijah rolled his eyes, while Allen glared at him, punching his arm.

"Ouch! I'm kidding, girl; chill out. Anyway, Hernandez isn't as bad as I thought. It should work out," he continued.

"He's my boyfriend's best friend. Of course he's good," said Allen defensively.

"Well, I wasn't exactly too fond of your boyfriend either, was I?" he laughed.

Elijah just remained silent. He cursed the fact that he had to see Dean again. He had gone an entire week without seeing the other boy, but it seemed like he would have to face him again. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. And it was way too early to stress about it; Monday mornings were tiring enough without having to add seeing one's crush, who was way out of their league, to the list.

As he rested his head on his arms, his thoughts drifted to the upcoming race. This would be his first official race I years; he had to ace it. After a few minutes he realized that his thoughts had drifted to a certain someone with brown curls, amber eyes and a soft smile, one that appeared when something, or someone, took you off guard; the laughter that bubbled up when your friends started acting and bickering like ten-year-olds.

Someone shaking his arm snapped him out of his reverie. "You okay? You kinda zoned out," said Allen, sounding a bit worried.

"Yeah, fine," he assured, mentally snapping at himself.